Meteorite Grains Divulge Earth’s Cosmic Roots
Heck and his colleagues examined 22 interstellar grains from the Murchison meteorite for their analysis. Dying sun-like stars flung the Murchison grains into space more than 4.5 billion years ago, before the birth of the solar system. Scientists know the grains formed outside the solar system because of their exotic composition.
“The concentration of neon, produced during cosmic-ray irradiation, allows us to determine the time a grain has spent in interstellar space,” Heck said. His team determined that 17 of the grains spent somewhere between three million and 200 million years in interstellar space, far less than the theoretical estimates of approximately 500 million years. Only three grains met interstellar duration expectations (two grains yielded no reliable age).
“The knowledge of this lifetime is essential for an improved understanding of interstellar processes, and to better constrain the timing of formation processes of the solar system,” Heck said. A period of intense star formation that preceded the sun’s birth may have produced large quantities of dust, thus accounting for the timing discrepancy, according to the research team.
Citation: “Interstellar Residence Times of Presolar Dust Grains from the Murchison Carbonaceous Meteorite,” Astrophysical Journal, June 20, 2009, Vol. 698, Issue 12, pages 1155-1164
Authors: Philipp R. Heck, University of Chicago Department of Geophysical Sciences and Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry
Frank Gyngard, Laboratory for Space Sciences and Physics Department, Washington University, St. Louis
Ulrich Ott, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
Matthias M.M. Meier, Institute of Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, Zurich, Switzerland
Janaína N. Ávila, Research School of Earth Sciences and Planetary Science Institute, Australian National University, Canberra
Sachiko Amari, Laboratory for Space Sciences and Physics Department, Washington University, St. Louis
Ernest K. Zinner, Laboratory for Space Sciences and Physics Department, Washington University, St. Louis
Roy S. Lewis, Enrico Fermi Institute and the Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry, University of Chicago
Heinrich Baur, Institute of Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, Zurich, Switzerland
Rainer Wieler, Institute of Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, Zurich, Switzerland
Funding sources: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Swiss National Science Foundation, the Australian National University, and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
Scientific Contact: Philipp Heck 312-860-8656 prheck@uchicago.edu
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.uchicago.eduAll latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy
This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.
innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.
Newest articles
Sea slugs inspire highly stretchable biomedical sensor
USC Viterbi School of Engineering researcher Hangbo Zhao presents findings on highly stretchable and customizable microneedles for application in fields including neuroscience, tissue engineering, and wearable bioelectronics. The revolution in…
Twisting and binding matter waves with photons in a cavity
Precisely measuring the energy states of individual atoms has been a historical challenge for physicists due to atomic recoil. When an atom interacts with a photon, the atom “recoils” in…
Nanotubes, nanoparticles, and antibodies detect tiny amounts of fentanyl
New sensor is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than the next best thing. A research team at Pitt led by Alexander Star, a chemistry professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich…